‘Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent’ Lets Nicolas Cage Go Full Cage

_{The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)}

_{Lionsgate/rated R/107 minutes}

_{Directed by Tom Gormican, written by Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten}

_{Starring Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Ike Barinholtz, Alessandra Mastronardi, Lily Sheen, Jacob Scipio, Neil Patrick Harris and Tiffany Haddish}

_{Cinematography by Nigel Bluck, edited by Melissa Bretherton, score by Mark Isham}

_{Opens theatrically on April 22}

At its best, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent works as both a commentary upon itself and as a straight-faced dramedy. The premise is almost too clever, that of Nicolas Cage playing a skewed version of himself meeting a very rich Cage super-fan (Pascal) who also happens to be a ruthless international criminal, but the film works because it remembers the nuts-and-buts foundations of its unassuming studio programmer intentions. Cage gets to play a fictionalized, narcissistic version of himself and he delivers a fascinating bit of self-aware (yet oddly non-winking) acting that’s both a criticism and coronation of its top-billed “marquee character.” I wish the plot were less formulaic, but c’est la vie.

Cage plays himself in the same way Michael Jordan and LeBron James played themselves in the Space Jam movies. This version is drowning in debt but obsessed with living up to his offscreen image, thinking his comeback role is just an audition away. Fortune smiles when his agent (Harris) gets a $1 million offer for Cage to appear as a guest at the birthday party of a wealthy olive oil baron. What seems like a rock bottom moment takes a turn when Cage finds himself genuinely drawn to the tycoon, a seemingly jovial guy who loves Cage’s films and credits the actor with being a positive influence on his life.

As the second trailer reveals, Cage is eventually accosted by two CIA agents (Barinholtz and Haddish) who inform the actor that his number one fan is the head of a major crime empire and that Gutierrez’s goons have kidnapped a teen girl in the hopes of interfering with an upcoming election. So, faster than you can say The Interview (sans anything that might get Lionsgate hacked by a foreign government), Cage becomes a quasi-spy even as he can hardly believe that this delightful and eccentric fellow is a metaphorical James Bond villain. Sure enough, the truth is a little more complicated, and potentially even more dangerous to him and anyone in his personal sphere.

As promised, the film is indeed a celebration of Cage’s long career. That includes obvious references to his 90’s action movies, less obvious nods to underseen gems like Guarding Tess and, where relevant, his last decade spent as a VOD star. It’s no secret that Cage made a slew of “not for theaters” films to pay off financial obligations, and it’s telling how we view the profession of acting that so many would look down on Cage for “paying off his debts by doing his job a lot.” The film avoids potshots at that era, which is fair since there’s a “diamond in the rough” (Joe, Mandy, Pig, etc.) every three or four films amid that period anyway.

The picture gets its “meme-ification” bits in where it needs to, including a Film Twitter-bait subplot involving Paddington 2, but it also understands that the movie won’t work if we don’t care about the bromance between the movie star and the eccentric super-fan. Unfortunately, without going into details, the film tries to have its cake and eat it too. I was reminded, ironically, of The Rock (one of the first big Hollywood movies I can remember with a super-sympathetic villain) which killed off Ed Harris’s rogue general early enough for Cage and Sean Connery to get a convention action climax. That’s not necessarily what happens here, but there is some cheating in the third act.

The third act does devolve into some rather conventional tropes, I am again reminded of how often all manner of movies twist themselves in knots to put teenage girls in danger, and some of the hijinks are almost willfully generic as if the mere fact that it’s the “real Nicolas Cage” reluctantly and flamboyantly participating makes it “okay.” Still, in terms of the scope and scale of this admittedly modest (but always polished) studio programmer, there’s a case to be made that The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent slowly turns into one of Cage’s VOD actioners, hoping the self-aware mockery papers over the lukewarm familiarity in a manner, not unlike the recent Scream.

Nonetheless, for the first two-thirds, Tom Gormican’s high-concept original does exactly what it advertises, and its third-act fumbles are not enough to throw the game. It doesn’t quite have the soul-searching confessional agony of J.C.V.D., nor the righteous anger of The Interview, but it is an enjoyable and well-acted bit of studio fluff. In the end, the film raises a glass to Nicolas Cage as a screen icon and a one-of-a-kind performer, as well as someone incapable of half-assing it no matter the circumstances. And in 2022, the picture feels like a mournful remembrance of the very idea of movie stardom, that an actor could be the most memorable thing in a given movie.